Friday, October 20, 2006

"Tag" Banned at Recess

A new school trend this year seems to be "suck all the fun out of school". I've noticed it at my kids' school... It started with "no peanuts" because of the kids with allergies (there isn't a "peanut free table" there's a "peanut table"), then it went to nothing could be sent in that was made in a factory that ever made anything that contained peanuts, then it was no snack sent in that wasn't healthy fruit, yogurt or dried fruit (of course trail mix is out because of the nuts), and now we just got letters saying that even at birthdays and school parties parents can only send in vegetables, fruit, rice cakes and water... (All of this making both lunch time and snack time way more expensive).

Way to suck the life of being a kid. No cupcakes for your birthday? No Halloween candy at the Halloween party? You can't even talk to The Man about all this or he blows a gasket...

Now, this hasn't happened at our school yet, but I wouldn't be surprised:

"...Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

Recess is ''a time when accidents can happen,'' said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

While there is no district wide ban on contact sports during recess, local rules have been cropping up. Several school administrators around Attleboro, a city of about 45,000 residents, took aim at dodgeball a few years ago, saying it was exclusionary and dangerous.